By Darlene Wallach
On Nov. 18, the Israeli military kidnapped me — a Jewish American leaving behind the comforts of San Jose — and 17 others from three Palestinian fishing vessels plying Gaza’s coastal waters. Two other international human rights workers and I were accompanying 15 Palestinian fishermen to provide witness to and documentation of the frequent harassment and attacks by the Israeli navy. Our seizure belies Israel’s claim that it no longer occupies Gaza and its 1.5 million people.
An Israeli blockade curtails food, fuel, medicine and travel.
By Eyad El-Sarraj, Los Angeles Times, 14 December 2008
Reporting from Gaza — From my home in the Gaza Strip, I followed the American election season with interest. Many times I heard the personal stories of Americans without access to healthcare and the toll illness has taken on their lives. I can relate. For months, I waited in Gaza, unable to leave (despite the fact that I carry a British passport) and increasingly desperate to secure a medical appointment about 45 minutes away in Israel.
Peter Mott
Rochester Democrat And Chronicle
Guest essayist
December 7, 2008
Because of the current financial crisis, many observers see no point in discussing an expansion of health care coverage this year — either federal or state.
Indeed, it is true that the current crisis is adding greatly to our public debt. And it is true that total health costs in the United States are already twice as high per person per year as those of any other nation and rising faster. If we were to start paying to insure our 50 million uninsured — plus an estimated 40 million Americans who are underinsured — costs would escalate hugely.
Believe it or not, there is one proposal that could cover all Americans for all needed services and save money. And it is now that we must explore that proposal. Studies have shown that national savings would amount to $350 billion per year.
Related: Don McCanne, MD: Sen. Daschle’s “Critical”
The following video describes in pictures and words the shocking details of Israel’s deliberate ravaging of Palestinian life and society in Gaza. Its purpose is to call attention to the plight of a people under siege, which so far has been chillingly ignored by governments and the world media unwilling to call Israel to account for its criminal execution of the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians from their own land.
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